In earlier application Ser. No. 925,290, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,251,153 a photocopier system is provided having one or more detachable, portable optical reader units, each having a recorder or memory, that may be carried about by the user for reading and temporarily storing a video image of a printed document or other optical image to be copied and reproduced. For reproducing the recorded video image made by the portable reader, its recorder or memory is later connected to a compatible photocopier machine, at the convenience of the user, to read out the stored video image into the photocopier where a "hard copy" reproduction is made by the machine.